The retailer has told its workforce that it is likely to enter administration next week and is "urgently" working to try to secure its future.

Comet has been under increasing pressure from suppliers to pay upfront for stock before the critical Christmas trading period. The company is trading without credit insurance, which protects suppliers against the failure of a retailer.

Those demands are understood to have intensified in the past fortnight after it emerged that OpCapita, the private equity company that owns Comet, had received approaches for the chain.

Deloitte has been lined up as an administrator in what will be the 29th high street retailer to go into administration since the turn of the year.

The prospect of Comet's administration is the latest blow for a brick and mortar retailer grappling with the increasing popularity of online shopping and UK consumers with less money to spend.

Kesa also paid OpCapita £50m and retained liability for Comet's pension plan, which had a deficit of £45.9m at the end of April.

David Newlands, the chairman of Kesa, said at the time of the sale that "the truth of the matter is we had to pay £50m to get the business away."

Signs that Mr Clare has stabilised a sharp drop in sales is thought to have prompted the approaches that OpCapita received. The veteran retailer said in July that Comet was "climbing out of the hole".

OpCapita has reduced staff numbers from about 8,000 in a bid to cuts costs.

Electrical retailing has been one of the hardest hit by the growth in online shopping as consumers turn to options such as Amazon, the world's largest online retailer. In the US, Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer, is trying to overhaul its business to cope with growing competition from Amazon and Apple, whose stores sell their own bestselling products.

Last month saw Argos, one of the best-known names on the high street, announce plans to cut 50 shops and focus more investment in online retailing.